Hank Mobley

Henry Mobley was born on the seventh of July 1930 at Eastman, Georgia, the son of a Georgia Black family of the principal post-Great-Migration Georgia-to-New Jersey Black community. He was raised at the family relocation to Elizabeth, New Jersey in the principal late-1930s.

He was instructed in alto saxophone from age sixteen — and switched to tenor saxophone in 1949. He was hired across the principal late-1940s and early-1950s at the principal Newark and Trenton New Jersey rhythm-and-blues commercial-performance community.

He was hired in 1951 by the principal Paul Gayten Newark rhythm-and-blues band as a junior tenor saxophonist — and was hired in 1954 by the principal Max Roach Quintet alongside the principal trumpeter Kenny Dorham, the principal trumpeter Clifford Brown, the principal pianist Richie Powell, and the principal bassist George Morrow.

He co-founded with the principal drummer Art Blakey and the principal pianist Horace Silver (placed in this archive) the principal Jazz Messengers at New York in 1954 — at the principal post-1954 New York Jazz-Messengers hard-bop foundational period. He held the principal Jazz Messengers tenor-saxophone position from 1954 to 1956.

He was signed by the principal Blue Note Records founder Alfred Lion at New York in 1955 — and recorded approximately twenty-five principal Blue Note Records Hank Mobley long-playing-records across the principal 1955 to 1970 Hank-Mobley Blue-Note commercial period.

The principal Blue Note Hank Mobley long-playing-records include the principal Mobley's Message of 1956, Hank Mobley Quintet of 1957, Soul Station of 1960, Roll Call of 1960, Workout of 1961, Another Workout of 1961, No Room for Squares of 1963, The Turnaround! of 1965, Dippin' of 1965, A Slice of the Top of 1966, and Reach Out! of 1968.

The principal Soul Station of February 1960 — featuring the principal pianist Wynton Kelly, the principal bassist Paul Chambers, and the principal drummer Art Blakey — is at this day the principal foundational hard-bop long-playing-record of the principal post-1960 American hard-bop canon.

He was a principal member of the Miles Davis Quintet across the principal 1961 to 1962 Davis-and-Mobley commercial-and-performance period — at the principal post-Coltrane Davis-Mobley-and-Kelly-and-Chambers Davis-Quintet commercial-and-performance period.

He was the principal Blue Note Records hard-bop tenor saxophonist of the principal post-1955 American hard-bop tradition — at the principal Blue Note Records post-1955 hard-bop commercial-and-compositional canon.

He died at Philadelphia on the thirtieth of May 1986 of complications of pneumonia, at fifty-five.

He is honored here as the principal Blue Note Records hard-bop tenor saxophonist.